Aug 14, 2011

100 Days Until "The Muppets"

Today on The Muppet Mindset we are proud to debut a brand new weekly segment counting down the days until the November 23rd United States release date of The Muppets. Our friend Lucas Ervin has graciously agreed to take us through a trip on The Muppet Show ever Sunday leading up to the release of the movie with clips showcasing the awesome that is Muppets. Our intention is to have seven clips per post, thus one clip for every day leading up to the movie. Enjoy!

Lucas Ervin - Hello everyone, I'm Luke. I've been a lifelong fan of the Muppets, and with the new Muppet film just a little over three months from now, I thought it'd be fun to show some highlights of The Muppet Show on the Mindset leading up to the release date.

As most of you are aware, this is unlike any Muppet film that’s been done in many, many years. Sure, we’ll have the main characters like Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Gonzo. But after 21 years, Rowlf and Scooter are being made main characters again, as well as everyone from the Electric Mayhem... not just Animal! Plus we’re going to see the return of many characters that haven’t said a word since The Muppet Show went off the air, including Wayne and Wanda, Uncle Deadly, Link Hogthrob, Julius Strangepork, Beauregard, Thog, and many more. Just with the movie trailers alone, it feels like you’re going to visit a family you haven’t seen in awhile that you’re very excited to see them all again. And the best part about the whole thing? It’s essentially a movie about The Muppet Show.

Let’s start with the seven most famous recurring sketches on the show, starting with Piiiiigs iiiiiiin Spaaaaaaace!

100. Pigs In Space- This sketch started during season two, with two new characters created specifically for it: Captain Link Hogthrob and Dr. Julius Strangepork. And of course, they had First Mate Miss Piggy, who usually had to deal with her slightly dimwitted counterparts. It was set up to poke fun at Star Trek and other sci-fi television shows that were on during the 70's. The sketch was so popular that in 1981, NASA used one of the sketches as a wake up call for the crew on Space Shuttle Columbia two mornings in a row. It's also rumored that they will do a "Pigs In Space" sketch in the new movie.

99. Muppet Sports- Based off of famous sports broadcaster Howard Cosell, Lewis Kazagger came along in season three, and brought with him a new recurring sketch: The Wild World of Muppet Sports. He covered such absurd "sporting events" as wig racing, blindfold sprinting, and horseshoe pitching. Sometimes he would even fall victim to the event that occurred. In our presented clip, Lewis attempts to find out where the racers get the real poo for their racing wigs.

98. Muppet News Flash - Performed by Jim Henson, no other character on the show was more accident-prone than the Newsman. During the first season, however, he didn’t wear his glasses, he would sometimes interview the guest star, and his voice was much like Link Hogthrob’s. However, beginning in season two--with a voice closer to Dr. Teeth’s--all of that changed when every possible, horrible thing you could imagine started hitting him, falling on him, or blowing him up. He dealt with silverware, cattle, bowling balls, statues, rocks, chickens and even explosives, but still he would always come back again to report the news with great urgency.

97. Bear on Patrol- A sketch that parodied cop dramas that were famous during the 70’s and 80’s, "Bear On Patrol" put Link Hogthrob and Fozzie Bear in silly scenarios that made the law enforcement on Dukes of Hazard look like NYPD Blue. In the first of many sketches they did during the Leslie Uggams episode in season three, a pig is caught impersonating an officer... or two. Note the wanted posters in the background of the clip feature Dr. Teeth, Animal, Floyd, and Janice.

96. The Swedish Chef- There are few people who don’t know who this guy is. He’s been around since the first episode and is still one of the most famous characters in the bunch. He served chicken in the basket by shooting an actual chicken through a basketball hoop, made donuts by shooting a hole through a muffin with a blunderbuss, and made a wedding cake entirely out of onions. Jim Henson always worked the head and voice while Frank Oz did the live hands. People on the set loved watching the filming of the Swedish Chef bits because of all the improv that took place when shooting. Come for the food, stay for the insanity.

95. Muppet Labs - Where the future is being made today! Few people know this, but before Beaker came along, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew was the only one around to fall victim to his projects. That all changed in season two when his faithful yet abused assistant Beaker came along, only speaking in "meeps" and "moops." Bunsen always seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Beaker didn’t want to be the first to test his new experiments--whether it was edible paper clips, fireproof paper or an evil rabbit robot--but somehow, Beaker would end up being shocked, blown up, or eaten. How Beaker survived so many years, we’ll never know.

94. Veterinarian's Hospital- Starring Rowlf the Dog as Dr. Bob along with Nurse Piggy and Nurse Janice, "Veterinarian's Hospital" was the story of a quack who had gone to the dogs. Rowlf was always performed by Jim Henson, and as, Dr. Bob, he would show just how unprofessional of a doctor he was by insulting the patient and throwing out corny jokes and wicked puns to Piggy and Janice. They say laughter is the best medicine, which explains Dr. Bob's parade of puns and lobotomy of laughing.

2 comments:

Nice idea, but that many videos makes the page too long to load and makes the Mindset operate slowly - you need to just link to the vids instead of putting them on the page (like in the Sesame top ten articles)

Great idea! I'm not having any trouble with the loading, so the setup is fine for me. There are just SO many great clips... I can't wait to see if what else is on the list. (Are you including the onion song with Rowlf?? LOVE IT!) - Stelle